Peter Lovell

Interviewed by Trish Levido on 6 January 2010
Subject: Business, Spit Junction

Trish Levido. Did your father buy the Lovell’s business?

Peter Lovell. No, he bought Minty’s, a general drapery store on the corner of Spit and Military Road, directly opposite Vista Street. We used to look straight down Vista Street. He bought that from the Minty family in 1963. It was a drapery shop. Minty’s I believe had it for somewhere between 30 or 40 years before us. Julian Minty was the person my father bought it from but his father bought it from a fellow originally by the name of Bridgman. So the business had been going for well over 100 years and has had three owners in that time. Bridgman was mainly a milliner which is hats of course.

Trish Levido. What period was this?

Peter Lovell. It would have had to be purchased from the time the buildings were built in Mosman. The original Bridgman’s was two shops with an archway between the two of them, and later on, I don’t know whether Bridgman did it or Minty’s did it, but the archway was bricked up and one half became a Ham & Beef shop, delicatessen, and then they extended the shop backwards, not quite into the lane because there was a garage and staff rooms behind. Minty’s was 26 foot wide at the front and 10 foot 6 inches wide at the back and it was doglegged. It had a straight side and you used to come down and then turn. It was 10 foot 6 inches wide at the back.